Celebrating 20 Years of Yellow Lounge Live From the Reeperbahn Festival

Yellow Lounge returns to Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival on 22 September 2021 for a special 20th-anniversary edition. Taking place at Thomas Read Disco (Nobistor 10), the event will feature pianist Alice Sara Ott, cellist Kian Soltani and composer-performer duo Hania Rani and Dobrawa Czocher, musicians of different nationalities and from different backgrounds, reflecting the diversity of DG’s roster of young artists, not to mention the leading role played by women in the classical music world today. Their sets will include music from their latest albums, accompanied by visuals from VJ Philipp Geist, with DJ Clé providing the mixes. The event will also be streamed live from 7pm (CEST) on YouTube, Facebook and DG’s brand-new TikTok channel.

Classical music has won a new generation of fans thanks to Deutsche Grammophon’s Yellow Lounge club nights, which began in Hamburg back in 2001. Since then, Yellow Lounge has connected hardcore clubbers with the best in live classical performance and helped young people around the world to feel at home with the classics.

“Yellow Lounge has played a key role in building a large new youth audience by presenting performances from world-class artists at affordable prices in unusual and unconventional venues,” notes Kleopatra Sofroniou, General Manager Classics at Deutsche Grammophon. “Our Yellow Lounge concerts regularly attract up to 1000 guests and have been an online phenomenon for some years now.”

“Over the past two decades, Yellow Lounge has never stopped evolving – it’s been open to new genres, kept up with the latest trends and made a successful move into the digital age,” adds Nanja Oedi, Head of Marketing New Repertoire at Deutsche Grammophon. “The interaction between the artists on stage and the clubbers just metres away is incredible, and you feel that fantastic atmosphere whether you’re in the venue or livestreaming the event. DG launched the series in Hamburg and our last visit to the Reeperbahn Festival rocked a huge crowd, so we’re delighted that Yellow Lounge is celebrating its 20th birthday there too.”

Yellow Lounge grew rapidly from its base in Germany to become a regular fixture on the club scene everywhere from Berlin and London to New York and Sydney. Recent editions have been held in Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo, while every Yellow Lounge has been streamed live online since 2015. “Over the years the series has developed its own dynamic,” observed the Berliner Zeitung. “It has proved how well classical music can work outside traditional concert halls.”